1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and a method thereof, and particularly relates to an information processing apparatus and a method capable of further reducing latency of decoding processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In related art, there is a decoder decoding an encoded stream obtained by encoding video by an encoding format called as MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). In the MPEG series which have been standardized, MPEG2 is common. Recently, compression encoding formats such as MPEG4 or AVC (Advanced Video Coding) in which compression ratio has been increased have been standardized.
When the encoded stream is decoded in a personal computer, for example, there is a method of decoding the stream by using a decoder configured by hardware which is added on the personal computer by, for example, an expansion board.
In such case, the personal computer supplies an encoded stream to the decoder when it becomes necessary to decode the encoded stream. The decoder decodes the encoded stream when receiving the stream from the personal computer, and returns base-band data to the personal computer. Therefore, there is a problem that the whole processing time executed by the personal computer is increased when the latency from the supply of the encoded stream to the decoder by the personal computer until acquisition of the encoded result.
Particularly, a codec I/F of an application software performing common conversion and effects normally performs decoding frame by frame, therefore, the latency of the whole moving picture data is further increased.
For example, in a field of dealing with non-compression video such as in movie production, there is a tendency that video is high definition such as 4k, x2k, and the encoding of data is becoming more important.